managed services PSA RMM SaaS resource center

Evolve IP, a cloud services company, released “The 2015 Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Survey.” Of those responding to the company’s survey, 50.5 percent believe their company is “somewhat” prepared for a recovery, and 4 percent are not prepared at all. Only 45.5 percent of respondents believe they have the proper disaster recovery plan in place and are very prepared for recovery.

MSP-FOCUSED EXECUTIVE COMMENTARY

Q: How do I develop a true leadership team? Coach: In our previous discussion on leadership teams, we examined how a diverse team enhances your ability to come up with innovative ideas or to solve complex problems. Just to recap, issues generally have three dimensions: tactical (task), relational (people) and systemic (big picture).

Many of us have owned our businesses for numerous years and come from the Boomer Generation. Boomers are frugal for the most part, and were raised with dial telephones, three-channel television, and in a single-income family. We saved our leftovers, ate everything on our plates, and the stores were closed on Sundays. We grew up with a mindset of budgets, and when we got out of college it was the ‘70s. We listened to vinyl records, FM radio, and drove an American-made car.

You’ve more than likely heard the saying, “jack of all trades, master of none,” and while in most cases this applies to individuals, it can also pertain to businesses, including solutions providers and MSPs (managed services providers).

Technical advancements have completely reshaped the way we live and function today. These advances are an outcome of creative minds and innovative ideas stimulated by effective learning, imparted to a great extent, by our esteemed educational institutions. Interestingly, the education sector has always been notoriously slow to adopt new technology with very little changes made in the past so-many decades.

MSP-FOCUSED WHITE PAPERS & CASE STUDIES

IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) is proving to be a leading service within the exploding cloud computing market. Gartner, for example, predicts that IaaS will achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41.3% through 2016, the fastest growing area of public cloud computing the research firm tracks. As would be expected, the market has been flooded in the past few years as established IT giants (e.g. IBM, Microsoft) and startups (e.g. ProfitBricks, CloudSigma) alike have come out with IaaS offerings.

To remain in business as long as East Texas Copy Systems (ETCS), which was established in 1945, you have to be vigilant of industry trends and embrace change. During the 2008 recession, ETCS unquestionably demonstrated these abilities, first by recognizing that copier, printer and paper usage were on the decline. And, secondly, noting that if it wanted to remain relevant, it needed to become an expert in selling the systems and solutions that were replacing its former office staples.

ABOUT MANAGED SERVICES

Managed services are outsourced services for which the management and responsibilities are handled by a service provider. Some common managed services include professional services automation (PSA), remote monitoring and management, mobile device management, business applications, postage, transportation, database management, information services, communication services, and many more. Nearly any piece of software or business application available today can be offered as software as a service (SaaS).

A managed service provider (MSP) is an individual or organization that handles the management and upkeep of a provided service and is responsible for delivering and maintaining the service. Managed services often operate on a near-fixed or flat monthly payment model, sometimes with an initial up-front cost for setup which creates a consistent revenue stream for managed service providers. MSPs may often use a Vendor Management System (VMS) to provide both parties with detailed analytics and data about the services being provided. In addition to the VMS, the deployment and control of customers' managed services is often done with specialized software known as Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) software. The MSP business model has become more common due its success and the consistent revenue stream that it provides. Some value-added resellers (VAR) also offer products and services with a similar recurring-payment model.

Many government agencies use managed services and many fortune 500 companies take advantage of them as well. Managed services can replace the traditional off-the-shelf resale method, but switching poses many challenges including a more complex billing process and a new sales process which is more service based.

FEATURED MSP-FOCUSED PRODUCTS

StorageCraft® ShadowProtect® IT Edition™
StorageCraft® ShadowProtect® IT Edition™ is the tool of choice for many IT professionals and consultants. ShadowProtect backs up everything on your Windows system - operating system, settings and data - and saves it to an external storage device.

N-central® is a #1 rated MSP Service Automation Platform. N-central is both flexible and powerful. Deliver best-of-breed services across multiple networks and sites - all from a single pane of glass.

Autotask Pro
Autotask is the all-in-one web-based software that helps VARs, MSPs and IT Service Providers to sell, implement, deliver and bill their services.

OKI Printing Solutions
Total Managed Print, the most comprehensive managed print services offering in the industry, is a dynamic business decision-making tool that gives you the ability to transform your print operation into one of the most fine-tuned and efficient aspects of your business.

In this short video, we walk you through the powerful, full featured Help Desk Manager. Help Desk Manager delivers MSP-optimized, ITIL aligned, web-based help desk and ticketing at a price anyone can afford. Run it standalone or integrated with N-central - on premise or hosted. The choice is yours.